Sacramento – Today, Assemblymember Laurie Davies (R-Laguna Niguel) issued the following statement following the introduction of her bills AB 485 and AB 500:
“Walk around any major city in California and one thing is obvious: We have a homeless crisis due to a housing affordability issue. To address this problem, the Legislature routinely focuses on the construction of new units and buildings. Now, we must champion housing reforms to protect working tenants and families. It is imperative we pass protections against predatory landlords who charge exorbitant rental application fees or increase rent with little warning to tenants. Stronger tenant protections can help prevent housing displacement and homelessness by ensuring tenants and families have safe and stable housing. ”
AB 485 is a measure to prevent skyrocketing housing application costs by increasing and capping the base application fee to $40 while simultaneously eliminating the provision in state law that allows landlords to raise it via the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The California Apartment Association estimates that given the current fee (of $30) plus CPI, a landlord may charge an application fee of an estimated $55.58 per applicant.
AB 500 is a measure to bring uniformity when it comes to rent increase notifications by ensuring tenants are given future rent increase notifications 90 days in advance regardless of how much the increase will be. Under current law, depending on the percent of the increase, a landlord has to give either 30 or 90 days’ notice to tenants. A potential 30-days’ notice does not give a tenant or family enough time to adequately determine if they can afford the current unit or find and apply for another dwelling.
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Assemblywoman Laurie Davies represents the 74th Assembly District, which includes the communities of southern Orange County, including Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, San Clemente, and San Juan Capistrano plus the communities of northern San Diego County, including Camp Pendleton, Oceanside and Vista.